This invention relates to vending machines, and more particularly to a coin operated dispenser for relatively thin packets, such as individual tickets. More particularly, the invention provides improvements permitting the reliable dispensing of relatively large, thin tickets which, because of their dimensions, are unwieldy and thus difficult to dispense mechanically.
The prior art provides numerous examples of various vending machines and mechanisms. Examples include:
Long -- U.S. Pat. No. 839,304 -- Dec. 25, 1906 PA1 Stewart -- U.S. Pat. No. 1,061,880 -- May 13, 1913 PA1 Hanson -- U.S. Pat. No. 1,349,953 -- Aug. 17, 1920. PA1 Lewis -- U.S. Pat. No. 1,434,061 -- Oct. 31, 1922 PA1 Leis et al -- U.S. Pat. No. 2,058,700 -- Oct. 27, 1936 PA1 Kaltenbach -- U.S. Pat. No. 2,263,040 -- Nov. 18, 1941 PA1 Niewoehner -- U.S. Pat. No. 2,444,747 -- July 6, 1948 PA1 Foushee -- U.S. Pat. No. 2,528,690 -- Nov. 7, 1950 PA1 Schonthal -- U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,087 -- Jan. 2, 1973
U.s. pat. No. 1,688,821
However, this art fails to provide satisfactory dispensing of large size tickets, or uses mechanisms which are unnecessarily complicated and unduly expensive. Thus, while it might appear at first glance that larger size tickets, such as bus tickets, lottery tickets, and so on, could be dispensed simply by scaling up a machine such as a postage stamp dispeners, it has been found in practice that such an approach is unsatisfactory.